Healing With Low Artes
by Fangs of Lightning
Summary: Prompt: Rose gets severely injured in battle. Dezel takes care of her.


Based off an anonymous prompt on tumblr: Rose gets severely injured in battle. Dezel takes care of her.

Healing With Low Artes

When Rose fell to the ground, Dezel didn't worry much. She'd be back up and on her feet in moments. But a few moments passed without Rose getting up. She tried, falling back to the ground with a gasp of pain that had Dezel running over and dropping to a knee at her side. Strong winds picked up around them until an effect barrier against the hellions had formed in the shape of a cyclone.

"I'm fine." Rose pushed a hand against Dezel's chest as she spoke. Her tone wasn't convincing, pained far too much for a simple injury.

The winds tugging at her clothes and hair brought images of red on white. A tear in the cloth exposing her bloody calf to his gaze. Blood seeping between the fingers of the hand she'd pressed against her side. Of course she was trying to play it off as nothing.

"You're not fine."

Dezel ignored Rose's protests as he pulled her to her feet. With the amount hellions around, there wasn't any time to heal her injuries here. He could only keep the cyclone in place for so long. She hissed and leaned to the side, clearly unwilling to put much weight on that leg.

"That hurts," Rose gasped. "What are you doing?"

"We need to move."

The strong winds around them didn't die down as he bent to hook an arm around her thighs and lift her from the ground. The other arm was around her back for the extra support.

"Hey! You don't need to-"

"You can't walk on that." Dezel growled at the number of hellions surrounding them.

There hadn't been nearly as much malevolence before the group had split up. Armatizing might not be such a good idea with Rose's condition... Dezel started running, using the wind to move faster and leave the hellions behind them in moments. Rose's free arm wrapped tight around him and her face pressed into his shoulder, not moving from that position until he set her down at the edge of a spring. The injured leg, he kept lifted from the ground despite Rose's protests. He wasn't about to risk getting dirt in it.

"What happened back there?" It wasn't often Rose got injured, much less to this extent.

"I felt the pain in my leg and when I turned, the bastard tried to stab me. I was fast enough to avoid getting skewered but... I guess we underestimated the hellions?"

Dezel snorted, though she was probably right. They'd gone so long without an actual challenge, both of them hadn't been paying as much attention as they should have.

"So... I take it you can't heal this with a seraphic arte."

"Your leg isn't the problem."

It was the less worrisome of the injuries, but it wouldn't take long to heal. Dezel pressed his hand against the gash and focused. Healing artes really weren't his specialty.

"You don't use healing artes that often." Rose's observation had him turning his face in her direction, the wind brushing over her face to see the small smile.

"My healing artes aren't that strong, as I'm sure you've noticed."

Dezel unbuckled the belt around her hips and pushed it off. Lifting her up to pull the tunic from under her and push it up. Rose shivered under the chill of the wind as Dezel grimaced. It wasn't quite as bad as he'd expected, but still definitely beyond his abilities. Nevertheless, he pressed a hand to it and started with a healing arte again. That could do something while he found what he needed.

"Don't push yourself too hard for my sake," Rose said. "What am I supposed to do if you pass out on me?"

"I'm more worried about you."

"Oh c'mon Dezel. I'll be fine."

Dezel bit his lip rather than respond, focusing on her injury. It was getting hard for him to keep up the arte already... There was already a lot of blood and it wasn't stopping...

"Dezel? You're shaking." She took his hand, fingers curling around his but not interrupting the arte.

Reaching into the pouch on his thigh with his free hand, Dezel pulled out a gel and gave it to Rose. Healing this was going to need everything he could do.

"I hate these things."

"It'll help."

She sighed but ate it anyway with a small sound of disgust.

"Y'know, those don't taste much like what they claim."

"They help with injuries. That's all that matters."

"They could at least make them taste better."

Rose's light tone didn't make him feel any better about the situation. She was still bleeding. His healing wasn't good enough to fix this. The gel's affects did help, but not enough to calm his racing thoughts. If it kept up like this-

"Dezel." A hand slapping his arm got his attention and he looked at Rose. "I'm going to be fine. Something like this isn't going to kill me."

Her fingers brushed against his cheek, moving the hair from his face to expose one of his eyes. If it weren't for fear of hurting her, Dezel would've turned away. A thumb wiped the tears from the corner of his eye.

"Have a little more faith in yourself."

"I need to clean this."

Her hand replaced his the moment he took it away. Dezel got to his feet and walked over to the spring as he pulled a cloth from the pouch. Now, he was glad he carried all these supplies with him. If only he thought to have alcohol of some kind. Soaking it didn't take long and he returned to her side. Pressing the cloth to the wound and keeping it there. Rose was paler than usual, but not enough to warrant being worried for her life. This would be so much easier if there were any medicinal plants around. Dezel lifted the cloth to see her side again.

"How's it look now?"

"Better."

"Told you I'd be fine."

"You're not fine yet."

Again, he pressed a hand to it and concentrated. If he kept at it, it would be healed enough for him to stop worrying. Mikleo could finish it once they met up again. After a few long minutes, he finally sat back. He'd done as much as he could with his artes. At least she wasn't in any danger of dying. Wrapping a bandage around her waist covered up the wound and he sighed.

"Thanks Dezel."

Rose kissed his cheek before laying in his lap and taking his hand again. For now, they'd wait. If the others didn't show up in an hour, then it would be time to get moving.


End file.
